Church Of St Andrew

Church of St Andrew, Owston

This parish church is a fragment of a former Augustinian Priory founded by Robert Grimbald before 1161. The building is partially 13th century or earlier, with some early 14th-century and Perpendicular features. It was conservatively restored in 1861.

The church is constructed of square and finely coursed ironstone rubble with white limestone dressings and some ashlar work. The plan is unusual, reflecting its history as a priory building. The nave, chancel and north aisle form virtually a single space, though the aisle is roofed separately. This space was originally the chancel of the priory church.

A tower of approximately 1300, forming a porch on the north-west angle, is buttressed and of two stages with an embattled parapet and paired trefoiled lights to the bell chamber, topped by a short recessed spire. The north doorway has three shafts. The west wall of the aisle features one single splayed lancet, and a former steeper roofline is visible.

The nave is buttressed to the west and has a coped parapet with finial. A 3-light trefoiled window is set in a recess marked by white ashlar dressings, which also form two string courses. The south wall is very high with windows set high up in a slightly projecting section of masonry marked off by string courses above and below. Buttresses decorate this wall; that to the west is decorated with blank traceried panels. The east and west windows are in Decorated style with triple quatrefoiled lights, while the central window is Perpendicular with three square-headed lights. The east window is Victorian, in late Decorated style, with five lights and reticulated tracery forming three wheels or roses. A small doorway to the aisle has a squared hood mould and two memorial tablets above it, one dated 1755. The 1755 tablet is flanked by Corinthian pilasters adorned with floral motifs and capped by a scrolly broken pediment.

The buttressed north aisle has Perpendicular windows and a parapet with gargoyles. The tower forms the north porch; the inner doorway is set in a triple arched opening with a rounded inner arch, stiff leaf capitals to the middle shaft, and an outer hood mould with corbel heads. Above this, advanced slightly to form a recess between the south wall of the tower and north wall of the aisle, is another archway.

The interior is one massive space subdivided only by an arcade of two bays with wide and very lofty double chamfered arches on round piers with roll moulded capitals. Windows in the south wall are set very high up; over the central light are traces of a blocked round-headed archway. A blocked south door with round arched head is also present. The masonry at the east end is disrupted, suggesting the wall is not a single build. A 19th-century roof with tie beam and king post construction spans the interior.

The north door has unusual fretwork to its inner face, consisting of roughly shaped lattice work resembling branches nailed to the door. A tomb recess of approximately 1300 in the north wall features fleurons and ornate finials. Various 18th-century wall memorial tablets are located on the north and east walls of the aisle.

The chancel is distinguished only by being raised up two Victorian steps. Victorian fittings include simply chamfered altar rails, pews, and pulpit. The font is Victorian, octagonal in basin with simple geometric motifs on each side, supported on a chamfered squared base. The west window contains Victorian stained glass of particular quality depicting scenes from the life of St John the Baptist, created by Heaton, Butler and Bayne.